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Questions from new beekeeper- Comments welcome! (Pics included)

First year beekeeper in South Western Ohio. Two hives, from packages placed May 1. Opened hives today and have pictures and questions. Thanks!

Hive #1: Two Deep Supers, two Mediums, no queen excluder. Stronger of two hives. Lots of activity at entrance. Placed a second honey super (Medium) a few weeks ago as it seemed they were drawing comb fast and I wanted them to have room. One medium has comb drawn in most of it, but no honey, just about a dozen or so SHB (small hive beetles) which quickly met my hive tool and their demise. Second medium has about one complete frame of honey, about two with a little brood and the rest is just comb. One one of the honey frames I saw what looks to be queen cells. What's that all about? Pictures included.

Hive# 2: Weaker of two. Two deep supers, and one medium super, no excluder. All nine frames of honey super are practically empty of comb. Big let down. There are bees, but it seems no activity with comb or anything else. Upon looking in top deep, I found a frame that had lost a portion of the foundation, and they had filled with what looks like drone comb. What do I do with that? (pics included).

Questions:
1) Is that queen cells in hive#1, and if so, what do I do about it, and is it a concern?
2) Drone comb in hive#2, if so, what do I do about that if anything?
3) Lastly, but most importantly, SHOW ME THE HONEY! What the heck is the deal? Is it typical to have this little honey? I have not been feeding them (did once, and all it did was set off some robbing, which I had to contain). Any ideas? Thanks!

Re: Questions from new beekeeper- Comments welcome! (Pics included)

Ohio- Your first year expectation might be too much. starting with packages I would suspect and be happy with 2 hives that were 2 deep going into the winter. any honey in supers would be a real bonus, but maybe your region is different. I would remove the extra supers that aren't seeing any action. start your over wintering plans now and 2 FULL double deep hives...take a bow and get honey from friends. B

Re: Questions from new beekeeper- Comments welcome! (Pics included)

Are you sure you're queenright? IF you have queen cells and that many drones this late in the year you might have a queen laying bullets or laying workers. On hive 1 if you are queenright I'd take the top super off and leave the bottom one with all drawn combs and see how much honey you get. If they fill the super and the top deep I'd take the super for yourself and enjoy. Hive 2 I'd ditch the super. I'd also replace that drone comb now and look inside the cells and see if you have mites. In my area we've been in a dearth for a while that's why you're not seeing much honey. In this area we seem to get two types of goldenrod. The early stuff that's been in bloom for about 3 weeks only grows to about 18-24". I never see any bees on this type. Then there's the good stuff which grows around 3 to 6 feet tall. We are about a week or so from full bloom on that variety and we've had quite a bit of rain so I think it will be a good goldenrod flow this year. Hang in there good times are on the way.

Re: Questions from new beekeeper- Comments welcome! (Pics included)

Looks like drone brood to me in pic 1 & 2 and alittle honey in pic 3 .
What you should be doing the first year is learning how to keep them queen right and alive.
and honey will come the second year.
I see no QCs.
Do you have worker brood?

Re: Questions from new beekeeper- Comments welcome! (Pics included)

Originally Posted by tonyp

Are you sure you're queenright? IF you have queen cells and that many drones this late in the year you might have a queen laying bullets or laying workers. On hive 1 if you are queenright I'd take the top super off and leave the bottom one with all drawn combs and see how much honey you get. If they fill the super and the top deep I'd take the super for yourself and enjoy. Hive 2 I'd ditch the super. I'd also replace that drone comb now and look inside the cells and see if you have mites. In my area we've been in a dearth for a while that's why you're not seeing much honey. In this area we seem to get two types of goldenrod. The early stuff that's been in bloom for about 3 weeks only grows to about 18-24". I never see any bees on this type. Then there's the good stuff which grows around 3 to 6 feet tall. We are about a week or so from full bloom on that variety and we've had quite a bit of rain so I think it will be a good goldenrod flow this year. Hang in there good times are on the way.

Wow, thanks for this advice. It never occurred to me my queen might be having issues, although Hive 2 is really lagging. I will ditch the honey super on Hive 2, as you suggested, and I will go ahead and open up both hives completely and see what the honey stores are at for the upcoming winter. Wow, lots to learn. As for feeding, I tried it and it only led to robbing.

I guess, after reading the forums, it seems that if you have drone comb happening, it's because there may be a queen right issue? I did witness a drone or two. Spotting the queen I guess does not mean things are hunky dory. I last spotted the queen in hive # 2 a month ago. Hive number 1 had some brood in the honey supers a month ago, so I guessed she was still there, but now it seems that maybe she wasn't, after reading more.